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The Lost Island of SEO

(03/23/2011) Brian Mell

At the heart of the Internet exists an island shrouded in mystery. Your survival and ultimately your business's survival depends on unraveling the mysteries of that island.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) remains a mysterious, yet necessary element for any successful website. The mystery heightens and frightens when an algorithm change takes place, as a large number of websites recently experienced when Google's "Panda" algorithm took effect, becoming a "Lost Island" in the ocean of information we call the Internet.

The Lost Island Discovered
Even so, lost islands do not remain lost forever as evidenced by Gilligan's, Fantasy and Coney. In today's virtual online world, those seeking coconut powered alternative fuel sources, soft Corinthian leather or a hotdog search the Internet. That is why the SEO process (and it IS a process) needs immediate implementation in the beginning stages as most indexing and content tweaking takes place during this period.

Batten Down the Hatches
Over time, accumulation of content occurs in a well maintained website, e.g. new product pages, company information, blog posts, etc. Such accumulation adds weight or volume to a website that's crucial to weathering an algorithmic storm such as Panda, whose purpose is to filter out lightweight or irrelevant sites. Wikipedia or any "pedia" type website survives an update like this just by sheer volume of information. This would seem to validate content publishing as a major element in a successful SEO program.

Drop Anchor
Now, as much as the search engines would like to be the only game in town, they're not. Social media siblings, Twitter and Facebook provide a linchpin (thanks, Seth Godin) upon which to secure a website as they currently don't seem to be as susceptible to updates. Backlinks being an important part of acquiring relevancy in the eyes of the search engines, they become an additional and indispensable part of securing alternate entrance into a website.

As the Crow Flies
Of course, when one finds themselves lost, confusing or faulty directions receive the blame. Just as in the real world, clear and concise navigation eliminates any potential problems. Sitemaps, keyword mapping and wireframing provide insight when constructing an initial website layout. Analytic and statistic programs provide additional data as a website evolves and will aid in the development of navigation to and within a website.

Navigating back from the brink of obscurity requires an almost Herculean effort. Take control now. The next algorithm change may not be so kind.

About the author Brian Mell is the award winning Assistant Marketing Manager at BannerView.com. You can find him on Google+, managing BannerView's Twitter profile, and producing videos for the company's YouTube channel.

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